A homemade mango jam prepared as per French jam making traditions. This jam is all natural, and you will need regular sugar to make this from scratch with fresh mangoes.
Start by peeling your mangoes and discard the peel. Cut the fruit flesh from the mangoes if you are using regular commercial mango varieties. If your mango variety has fibers and strings, don't cut the flesh off but rather leave it on the seed core. The fruit flesh will fall off the fibers and the seed core during the cooking process. *see Notes
Pour all the sugar over the mangoes and mix everything well.
This step is optional. Wash your lemon/lime and cut into half. Press out the juice and pour over the mangoes. Throw the 2 squeezed out lemon halves into the pot with the mangoes. Lemon skin adds natural pectin to the jam making and it helps to set the jam.
Heat up, keep over a medium to high heat setting and bring your fruits with sugar to a rolling boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until the fruits appear translucent and set. (Note, hot jam will always appear liquid, which is misleading, and it only sets when cooled down). Simmering down can take about 30 minutes.
Optional: Mash or blend jam to desired consistency. You might like it chunky or not.
Test jam setting. Use a thermometer in doubt: The setting temperature is 105 Celsius/220 Fahrenheit. You can also test if the jam is set by using a frozen plate or spoon and by dropping some hot cooked jam on the frozen plate. That will cool the drop of jam instantly, and you will be able to see whether the jam has set or not. If the jam is still running, cook it a bit more and repeat the test until the jam has set. Always keep an eye on the cooking jam as to not burn the jam.
Pick out and discard the lime/lemon halves and if you used fibrous mangoes, then the seed core as well. *see notes
Grab a clean, sterilized jar and fill it up to the rim with the jam.
We drop some liquor (vodka, rum) into the lid to kill all the germs.
Seal the jars and turn it upside down before you store the mango jam jars in a cool and dry place. Keeping the jam jars upside down creates a vacuum and helps in preserving the jam all the longer. Turn the jars upside once they are not that hot anymore (about 30 mins later).
Make sure to label your jam with the jam name, date and best before date. The jam will be good for about 10 months if unopened. Store in the fridge once opened.
Video
Notes
When choosing mangoes, pick a mango variety with fewer fiber/strings and undamaged mango. If you use a mango variety which doesn't have fibers and only fruit flesh, cut off the fruit flesh from the seed core and discard the seed core. You only need to cook the seed core with the mangoes if the mangoes have fiber strings because you don't want those in your jam, and they remain on the seed core like a layer of hair.
Use only untreated/pesticide free lime/lemon because the whole lemon halves are used to cook up the jam as it provides natural pectin.
Store jars filled with jam in a dry, cool and dark place. Once you open the jars, store in the fridge.
Only use sterilized jars when making homemade jams. You can sterilize jars by boiling them in water, by washing them in the dishwasher, or by placing them into the oven to heat up. Sterilizing means killing all germs.
Half pint jars = to almost 250 ml jars. The base recipe requires 3 half pint jars, which is about 3 × 250 ml jars.
You can reduce the sugar in this mango recipe, but you will need to consume the mango jam in the next 1–3 days. The sugar in the mango jam and the lime/lemon help the jam to preserve for months if ripe fresh mangoes are used.
1 medium Mango weighs about 200 grams/ 7 ounces with the seed core.